TERAPROOF:User:sambolandDate:17/11/2013Time:18:52:57Edition:18/11/2013ExaminerLiveXX1811Page:
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ANALYSIS 11
Irish Examiner
Monday 18.11.2013
This is the third of a series of heritage-related articles, published by the National Monuments
Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht in conjunction with the Irish
Examiner and Limerick Education Centre. The focus turns to how we have defended ourselves
and our communities through the ages and what relevance these defences have for us today.
How Ireland
defended itself
and its native
communities
T
ODAY, dedicated gamers
will be familiar with the
trials of Ezio as he
negotiates life in the
12th century to protect
himself against the assassins of the
Borgia. How many have asked,
however, what it was really like to
live in medieval times? How would
you have protected yourself, your
family and your home?
In Ireland people have protected
themselves since prehistoric times
by building defences.
In the Bronze Age, palisaded settlements are known to have existed;
in the Iron Age promontory forts
were strategically located along our
coastline, and in early Christian
times we find defensive ring forts.
However, most prominent of all are
the medieval stone castles and tower
houses which can be found
throughout the country.
This article outlines the different
ways people defended themselves in
Since
ancient
times
Ireland
has
had to
defend
itself
from
invaders.
Ireland during the medieval period,
focussing on the chronological
development of castles with their
enclosing walls (bawn), battlements,
and defensive features like murder-holes and arrow loops.
Our castle legacy derives from the
Normans, originally from northwest
France, who, in 1066, invaded and
conquered England (Battle of
Hastings) and eventually arrived in
Ireland in 1169. The Normans
were highly skilled swordsmen and
accomplished horsemen. In addition, many were highly trained
bowmen, often being on target at
a distance of 100m.
They were also leaders in defensive strategies bringing with them a
new defensive architecture that has
become one of the most iconic field
monuments in our landscape today.
During the early stages of the
Norman campaign the defences that
BATTLE-HARDENED
See www.middle-ages.org.uk
and www.bayeauxtapestry.org.uk to find out
more about the Bayeaux
Tapestry. It depicts a motte and
bailey castle being constructed
at Hastings in 1066 in
preparation for the battle.
were built were quickly constructed earthwork and timber castles
known today as mottes and
baileys, and ringworks.
The mottes that are visible on
our landscape today are large, tall
mounds which, in medieval times,
come from the longbows and
crossbows of the archers firing
from the battlements or arrow
loops (openings) in the mural
towers and curtain walls. These
loops were cleverly designed to
give maximum defensive cover
while giving good views of the
target. Even if the enemy managed to breach the curtain wall
and get to the keep the entranceSTEALTH DEFENCE
way itself had a murder hole in
the vault overhead which was
At the Iron Age promontory
used to bombard the enemy with
fort Dun Aonghusa on the Aran
very unpleasant ammunition.
Islands, the most accessible
Taking any stone castle by force
approach to the fort is strewn
in the 13th century meant the use
with oblong, irregular limeof grappling irons. Sometimes a
stone blocks pointing in all
scaling tower was used because it
directions and packed closely
gave the attackers protection while
together. This made a stealth
attempting to approach, climb and
attack from this side impossibreach
a high curtain wall. A
ble on horseback or on foot.
number of machines were used to
damage the walls — some of
which
are familiar from films such
would have had a fortified woodas ‘Lord of the Rings’ — for
en tower (bretache) on the top.
example, battering rams and large
Attached to the base of the
catapults
called mangonels and
motte was a bailey — an earthen
trebuchets. Some of the larger
enclosure with a large bank decatapults could fire large objects
fended by a large wooden fence
up to a distance of 200m, while
or palisade. The bailey was mainly
higher
trajectory catapults could
used for storage, stables and billets
fire over walls and were often
while the motte housed the Lord,
armed with fireballs and even
his chief advisers and his family.
architectural detail are a reflection
dead animals — thrown inside to
Ringworks are another form of
of how structured and orderly
spread
disease.
castle — similar to a bailey.
Norman society was. Each castle
If all else failed some attacking
Once control had been estabalso served as a residence and was
armies put castles under siege;
lished, the Normans concentrated
an important venue for celebratostarving
the
defenders
into
surrenon building more permanent
ry feasts and tournaments.
der was often the most effective
structures and by the 1180s large
The great halls within the
policy and is a
well-documented
tactic in historical
TOUS DE LOUP DANGER
accounts of sieges
Under attack
in Ireland.
In medieval England, Tous de
Even today,
■ Mangonel and
loup were pits dug along the
many centuries aftrebuchet were types
approach to a castle — then
ter they were built,
of catapult used to
you can still appredisguised by earth, branches
throw projectiles at a
ciate what imposand leaves — embedded at the
castle’s walls, and are
ing
symbols
of
base was a sharpened stick
familiar from films such
power and status
sometimes covered in poison!
as ‘Lord of the Rings’.
castles were in
their heyday. The
more defensive, elaborate and
stone castles or keeps began to
grand the castle, the higher the
curtain walls hosted banquets for
emerge. These keeps formed an
status
of
the
owner
and
those
who
those showing allegiance to the
easily defended base from which
worked for him.
Lord, and, in accordance with the
control could be maintained over
While
these
keeps
served
a
very
strict
rules of Norman society,
conquered lands. A good example
people
sat in order of rank on side
important
military
function,
they
of this is Trim Castle in Co
tables in front of the Lord and
were much more than that.
Meath, which was the administraLady.
The structures were an integral
tive centre of the Lordship of
part
of
Norman
feudal
life,
and
The castles also functioned as
Meath.
their meticulous layout and
important administrative and legal
However, as the Normans were
newly settled in the country the
first stone castles had a strong military function; most had a central
keep with a timber hall, surrounded by a large curtain wall defended by mural towers and fortified
gateways with a portcullis.
Outside was a large water-filled
moat crossed by a drawbridge to
a heavily defended gate at the
other side, called a barbican. The
curtain walls were strong and
thick and sloped towards the base
to make them less vulnerable to
undermining by an aggressive and
determined enemy.
However, while the enemy may
have been trying to destabilise the
walls of your keep, an expert army
would have been dropping heavy
objects on the attackers through a
projecting defence at the top of
the walls, which had an opening
at its base, termed a machicolaRoscommon Castle: Our castle legacy derives from the Norman who arrived
tion.
in Ireland in 1169.
Pictures: National Monuments Service
Further defence would have
Clockwise from top: A scene from a siege at a castle; Grianan
of Aileach, Donegal; and everyday life in a tower house. In the
Bronze Age palisaded settlements are known to have existed;
in the Iron Age promontory forts were strategically located
along our coastline, and in early Christian times we find
defensive ring forts. However, most prominent of all iin our
landscape are the medieval stone castles and tower houses
which can be found throughout the country.
Pictures: National Monuments Service/Uto Hozergeil
centres; very often the Lord was
wooden door to be opened permitalso a High Sheriff assigned to
ting negotiations with the enemy
collecting taxes, overseeing trade
but preventing them gaining entry.
and market rules and holding
Most of the ruined castles in the
court. Some keeps also had ‘prisIrish countryside are the remnants
ons’ for holding the enemy
of 15th/16th century tower houses
hostage while
built by both Gaelic
awaiting payand Old English
ment of ransom.
(Norman origin)
The 14th cenfamilies.
tury saw a genThey are easily
Y
NO ENTR
eral decline in all
recognisable as tall 3,
aspects of
4 or 5 storey towers
rtcullis
The word po
medieval society.
with narrow winch
en
Fr
d
is from ol
This is the peridows and stepped
e’ —
ic
le
co
te
or
‘p
od of the Black
battlements, and
It
.
te
ga
g
in
a slid
Death (1349), a
some still retain their
of
g
in
at
was a gr
plague which
defensive bawn walls
n or wooden
iro
took a heavy toll
and fortified gates.
at
sl
or
bars
on mainly urban
houses.
populations in
By the late 16th
Ireland. This was
century, some tower
also a period of
houses were keeping
political upheaval
up with a new miliand as the power of the English
tary trend, incorporating gun loops
monarch eventually diminished,
into their defences. However, use of
Gaelic clans began to push into
gunpowder and cannon sounded the
Norman territories.
death knell of castle building across
By the early decades of the
Europe – they proved too easily
1400s, a new type of castle, the
breached by cannon fire. To countower house, was being built in
teract this threat star-shaped forts,
Ireland, which strongly resembled
such as James Fort in Kinsale, Co
the Norman keeps of the 12th
Cork, were developed.
century. Howeber, their defensive
These had sloping external earthfeatures were tailored to more
works to absorb cannonballs, and
local situations where small-scale
bastions to provide flanking fire.
warfare was the nature of the day.
Effectively, this led to the end of
For example, tower houses had
the ‘age of the castle’ and heralded a
specially protected doorways
new era of defensive strategies.
where an iron grill allowed the
● www.itsabouttime.ie.
?
■ This article is the third in a series of articles published by the National
Monuments Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht
in conjunction with The Irish Examiner and Limerick Education Centre
aiming to supplement the recently revised second edition of ‘Archaeology
in Classroom, Time in Transition’. The resource offers a comprehensive
range of engaging lessons across a series of three themes: Worship and
Commemoration; Lifestyle and Living; Archaeology at Work. All the
lessons are targeted (but not exclusively) at students who are undertaking
the Transition Year Option. In this article the focus is on the concept of
commemoration; the archaeological and historical evidence of its
development and its relevance today. For a more complete picture, this
article should be read in conjunction with Theme 2, Unit 2, Lessons 1 and
2 of Time in Transition available on www.itsabouttime.ie.